This thing has trouble running anything made past like 2012 and the newer emulators out there totally bust it. I tried recently running citra and it could barely hit 30%. Would switching over to linux lighten the load on the cpu and free it up so I could run more demanding games?
Also how is linux for emulation and gaming in general?
Hey no one said anything about this so here goes: I got a laptop with a 3xxx cpu like that and the thermal paste is old and crusty so it gets hot and throttles down (or sometimes shuts down).
The cpu can reduce its clock rate when it’s too hot in an effort to keep running but not overheat and shut off.
New thermal paste will make it cool more efficiently and not throttle down during cpu-heavy tasks.
Everybody already said that an ssd and more ram will help you out a bunch. Post your model number and I’ll look up some cheap compatible parts and a guide to replacing the thermal paste.
Will Linux make it run better?
On the one hand, it won’t make the emulator you’re trying to run any faster. On the other, it will boot, run and respond faster in general. Set up dual boot and give it a shot.
hmm didn't think about the thermal paste, wonder if that would be helpful. Thanks.
It almost certainly would. If you give me a model number I can help you figure out what’s possible.
MSI GE60 laptop
Msi will have three or four letter code like 0nd or 2pe or 2qd or something. It might be on one of the stickers on the bottom. That tells the guts of what’s in the ge60 chassis.
I ask because some of the ge60 configurations support only 8gb of ram and some support 32gb.
GE 60 0nd according to google, it's got 8gb ram
according to MSI you can have 16GB of ram in two sticks of DDR3 133. it's $23, there's no reason not to get a set of two at that price even though you already have one. who knows what the CAS latency is on the one you have and both sticks need to have the same latency anyway, so go ahead and do both if you want to upgrayedd the ram.
you could easily replace the sata hard drive with a sata ssd. here's a 1tb one for $72. you could go less and save some money.
the thermal paste is the hardest part, you gotta take some screws out, yank the heatsink, clean the old paste off and reapply new. here's a video of someone taking it apart. assembly is the reverse of disassembly. i use alcohol and paper towels to clean cpus and heatsinks. here's some thermal paste for $6. i use cheaper and shittier stuff because most of the stuff i work on isn't as high temp as computers. it ought to be fine.
Cool thanks! I'll see what I can do